A New Creation

A New Creation

When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior the Spirit of God recreates our human spirit in the image of God Himself. We are literally born of God, and made partakers of His divine nature.

A New creation:

(2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

(The Children’s Living Bible) When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!

The term creation in Webster’s dictionary is defined as‘a complete new species of being which never before existed.’ This is exactly what we become when we are born again, ‘a complete new species of being which never before existed.

Our identification with Jesus Christ is the most life changing truth the believer can ever come to realize and walk in. All that we will ever become or accomplish for the Kingdom of God is dependant upon our realization of our identity with Jesus Christ.

As a believer, we are not merely identified with Christ in that we are called Christians; we are identified with Him due to the fact that He is now our very life! When the scripture says that we are a new creation, it means exactly what it says. We are a brand new person inside. We didn’t join a club, or add something extra-curricular to our lives. We experienced a new creation transformation. Our spirit literally was recreated with the very life and nature of God Almighty. We became one with God, just as Christ and the Father are one.

This is one of the most miraculous works in the entire world! That God, through the power of His Spirit, can in a moment transform the very life and nature of a hell bound sinner into a heaven bound child of the living God. When we are born again of the Spirit of God, (the life of God) enters our human spirit, and His life changing power begins to work to transform our entire lives to reflect His very life and nature. The life of God enters our spirit through the new birth and begins to work throughout our entire life, until we are entirely transformed into Christ likeness. This is a life long process of God’s life and nature permeating our lives.

We are a spirit, who possesses a soul (mind, will and emotion) and lives in a body. (John 4:24 NKJV) “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

God is a spiritual being, and therefore it only goes to reason that our relationship with him is first and foremost spiritual. This new creation experience that the apostle Paul was referring to is a recreation of our human spirit.

Our bodies contact the physical material world. Our soul represents our personalities, or our emotions, intellect and will. Our spirit is that which animates or gives life to our body.

(James 2:26 ICB) A person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead…

(Genesis 2:7 NKJV) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;and man became a living being.

It is our human spirit which gives life to the body. The human body cannot live apart from our spirit, anymore than our clothes can walk around without your wearing them. In fact physical death occurs when your spirit leaves your body.

When we attend a funeral, we may look at the person’s body in the casket, but their spirit is long gone. We could call the human body our earth suit. Our spirit simply cannot stay in this world once it leaves our body.

There are those who believe that the spirits of the deceased still roam the earth, inhabiting houses, old ships, or other such dwellings, but this is completely false. When we as Christians die physically, we depart to be with Christ. When a person who is not saved or born of God dies physically, their spirit departs and travels to hell to await the final judgment, where they will be cast into the lake of fire.

(2 Corinthians. 5:6-8 NIV) Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. {7} We live by faith, not by sight. {8} We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

(Philippians 1:21-26 NKJV) For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

The apostle Paul made it very clear that when the believer physically dies he or she departs to be with Christ. We don’t sleep in the ground, or wander around the earth. I will go into greater detail of this in a latter lesson.

You must be born again, or born from above. We cannot enter the physical material world without being born into it. In like manner, we can only enter the God’s Kingdom by being born from above by the Holy Spirit.

(John 3:1-8 NLT) After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, {2} came to speak with Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you.” {3} Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” {4} “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” {5} Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. {6} Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. {7} So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. {8} Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

Jesus was simply stating the obvious to Nicodemus. Just as we cannot enter this physical world without being physically born. In like manner we cannot enter the Kingdom of God without experiencing a spiritual birth through the power of the Holy Spirit. This new creation is a recreation of the human spirit. When we call upon the Lord, by placing our trust in the finished work of Christ, our spirit is recreated with the life and nature of God Himself. As Peter stated, “We are partakers of the divine nature of God.”

(2 Peter 1:1-4 NKJV)…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

A new nature: (Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV) “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. {27} “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

God through the transforming power of the new birth recreates our human spirit, transforming the core of our being, places His life within us, and takes up residence in our spirit. From that moment forward we are no longer cut off from God’s presence, but we are welcomed as sons and daughters of God Himself.

Our spirit is recreated, and God’s comes to live on the inside of our born again human spirit. Think about the implications of the following Scriptures. God Almighty, the creator of the universe changes our spiritual DNA from that of a sinner, into a child of God. Then He come into our very being and takes up residence, where He begins to work His divine nature throughout our entire being, as we yield our will to His. We become the temple of the Living God on earth!

(Romans 8:14-16 NKJV) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. {15} For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” {16} The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God

(2 Corinthians 6:16 NLT)…As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

(1 John 4:4 NKJV)…greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.